MARCH 51 



Hall, in Aberdeenshire, the seat of Mr. C. Leith Hay. 

 The history of this bird is most remarkable. At the 

 outbreak of the Indian Mutiny in 1857, the late 

 Colonel Leith Hay, commanding the 93rd Highlanders, 

 attacked and carried by assault an entrenched position 

 defended by a rebel force. A soldier in the regiment 

 found within the enemy's lines a large sulphur-crested 

 cockatoo, which Colonel Leith Hay bought from him, 

 put in a cage, and gave in charge to a special bearer. 

 The ' kilties ' came in for plenty of hard fighting before 

 the Mutiny was quelled, and the cockatoo was present 

 in every action in which the regiment was engaged. 

 He survived the campaign without a scratch, though 

 his first bearer did not fare so well, for a roundshot 

 took off the unlucky fellow's head. The bird's language 

 on that occasion was said, by those who understood 

 Hindustani, to be a masterpiece of execration. 



At the end of the war the cockatoo was brought 

 home to Leith Hall, where he passed a tranquil and 

 fairly blameless life until his death in March 1908. 

 Thus we have it for certain that this bird lived for 

 fifty-one years, to which must be added the unknown 

 period intervening between his birth in an Austra- 

 lian gum-tree, and his capture by Queen Victoria's 

 troops. 



Twenty-six years ago, three Canadian geese were 

 sent to me in a present. All three turned out to be 

 females, and I blame myself for never having pro- 

 vided them with mates. They lay eggs in spring, 

 upon which they sit with pathetic assiduity, of course 

 without any effect upon the lacustrine population. 



